Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to... show more

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?This short novel was the artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction. A thoroughly absorbing and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.

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I wish this were as long as War and Peace. I wish the last three months of Ivan's life had been described in every minute detail. I wish I could read about his every physical ache and how it made its way through his being to his mind, transforming into thought, into doubt, into despair, into realisa...

This is a very interesting read. It relates the story of a dead man; a man whose life flashes before our eyes. While it must have gotten better, the life of Ivan kept going downhill until death took him.

“He suffered ever the same unceasing agonies and in his loneliness pondered always on the same insoluble question: "What is this? Can it be that it is Death?" And the inner voice answered: "Yes, it is Death.""Why these sufferings?" And the voice answered, "For no reason—they just are so.”What a true...

Four & a half stars!I'd have willingly rated it five stars had it not been this short.A man's journey through sickness and his reluctantness to accept the one truth of life - He is going to die. How he starts to resent his family, his colleagues and comrades all since he is about to die while they w...

The more Tolstoy I read, the more I appreciate his literary genius and his philosophic thoughts. This was a relatively short book dealing with Ivan Ilyich's realization of his impending death. His life had been mediocre at best and he realizes he hadn't really been happy and had been trying to live ...

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